Do you expect sincerity in man when hypocrisy is the very keynote of human nature? We are nurtured on it; we are schooled in it, we live by it; and we rarely realize it.’ – Book 3, Chapter 16

...it is human nature, I suppose, to be futile and ridiculous.

Thirstily he set it to his lips, and as its cool refreshment began to soothe his throat, he thanked Heaven that in a world of much evil there was still so good a thing as ale.

Open the history of the past at whatsoever page you will and there you shall find coincidence at work bringing about events that the merest chance might have averted. Indeed, coincidence may be defined as the tool used by Fate to shape the destinies of men and nations.

I am very poor - for a know nothing, understand nothing. It is not a calamitous condition until it is realized.

Gold has at all times been considered the best of testimonies of good faith.

Truth is so often disconcerting.